The globalization of the wine industry is nothing new.  In fact, it is the current expression of a trend that has existed since before recorded history.  What have we learned in those 6,000 years? 

The ancient Sumerians, in what is modern day Iraq, imported their wines from the mountains of the Caucasus.  The ancient trade route followed the Euphrates River to Sumer where the wines were sold.  And the transportation of these wines was remarkable.  The wines were shipped in palm trunk barrels and floated down the river in leather-covered boats.  The river was swift, and it was very difficult to get the boats back up the rushing river.  So each wine merchant carried the wine is his boat, and a donkey.  The donkey was for the return trip.  Once the wine was delivered, the wine merchant would fold his leather boat up, and put it on the back of his donkey for the long trip back up river.  One can only imagine the process of loading a donkey into a small leather covered boat and then sailing down river with it on board.  It makes today's wine challenges seem a bit more manageable, doesn't it?

Today we face challenges of a different sort:  we face governmental regulations, political differences, and enormously powerful competition.  In a sea of wine labels, it is sometimes difficult to get the attention your wine deserves.  But this is not a new problem, either.

In Egypt, in King Tut's tomb, there were 26 wine jars for his use in the afterlife.  Each of these jars had a clay "label" which included the name of the winemaker, the owner of the viticultural estate, the region, and the year.  In short, they had everything that our modern labels communicate: winery name, viticultural appellation, and vintage.  And even in those ancient days, they shared expertise.  Syrian winemakers were recruited to manage Egyptian vineyards.  Perhaps this was the beginning of globalization—5,000 years ago.

Wine is a remarkable product.  It celebrates nature and Mother Earth.  Imagine stone-age man, walking by a vine that was clearly dead in the winter.  It had no leaves. And yet in the spring it suddenly came back to life, full of lush green growth.  And in the autumn it produced grapes--perfect handfuls of delicious ripe fruit, full of juice and sugar, unlike anything else in the world.  It is easy to see how the vine became the perfect symbol of re-birth.  And when the grapes fermented, the juice made men feel like gods.  This is the culture of wine. 

Wine is more complicated to produce than beer.  Grain will last a long time if stored properly, so early man could make beer at any time of the year.  But wine has a definite moment of harvest, a time of fermentation.  So wine was a rare pleasure in a season of plenty--a way to celebrate, to prolong that season, and a way to get intoxicated. And most ancient people considered with the drink of the gods, or the blood of the gods.  It was powerful stuff.  In a time of hand-to-mouth existence, wine must have been a true blessing.  

Today we continue use wine to celebrate the important occasions of our lives.  A glass of wine is a reason to stop, to relax, to use our senses to explore the wine.  We admire the color.  We inhale the bouquet.  We savor the flavor of the wine in our mouth.  A glass of wine can be like a moment of meditation, a short vacation for your spirit, in the middle of a busy day.  That is the culture of wine.

Wine also celebrates the differences in our lands, our cultures and our styles.   Each regional wine has a unique character—the character of the soil, of the weather, and of the people who make the wine.  And it has the added benefit of being delicious.  This has been true since we first discovered that grapes could be made into wine.   Each country produces its own wine style—and each country has its own tastes in wine.  This is all part of the culture of wine.

Two thousand years ago, wine was traded from one end of the Roman Empire to the other.   Wines from different regions were famous for their unique quality and character, and were eagerly sought by connoisseurs.  We owe much of our modern day wine traditions to the Romans.  It was the Romans who planted on hillsides above rivers.  They did so not because the wine would be better, but because it would be easier to market.  It was cheaper to ship wine in a boat from one end of the Mediterranean to the other than to haul it 75 miles overland.  And this is why the wines of the Rhone and Rhine, Burgundy and Bordeaux, are famous today. These were the wines of international commerce.

What has changed over our lifetime is the not so much the concept of wine as an article of international trade.  What has changed is the role of the consumer.  Even in a very young market such as China, today's consumer knows more about wine, and has a more open mind about wine, than ever before.  This is due to two factors.

First of all, an ever-rising standard of living throughout the world allows more and more people to enjoy wine not just as a beverage, but as an expression of personal style and taste.  Our world is an explosion of personal expression: styles, colors, tastes and behaviors.  Wine is clearly a part of that explosion.  We not only acknowledge these differences, we delight in them.  We have to sell wine as an expression of our culture.

Secondly, the infrastructure of the wine industry, the media, and world trade now allow us to deliver far more than mere bottles and cases into a new market.  Yes, we can ship wines anywhere in the world.  But we can now accompany those wines with information, marketing materials, and sales support far more than ever before.  What we can deliver is more than just a wine; we can now deliver the full impact of a wine brand.  Marketed effectively, these brands offer exactly the kinds of choices, of personal expression, that our customers seek.

However, to compete in such a demanding market presents tremendous challenges.  The first challenge is that of market saturation.  There is no other industry in the world where the competition is so diverse.  In major wine markets such as New York, London, and San Francisco, we see wines from everywhere in the world:  not just France, but every region in France, every part of Italy, and new regions are being introduced in Spain every year.  In the New World wines from California, Washington, Australia, Chile, and New Zealand are increasing every day.  Did I mention Austria, Portugal, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, and Lebanon?   Or Texas, South Africa, North Carolina, Argentina, and Brazil?  In fact, there are now wineries in all fifty of the United States, from Alaska and Hawaii to Florida and Wyoming. 

It is a wonderful time to be a consumer.  The quality of the wines, and the choices that are available, are better than they have ever been.  Each year we see new wines-and each year the wines improve.  There is no room in today’s market for wines that cannot compete on quality.  If you are a producer, this is a terrific challenge.  You have to make wine that is as good as any in the world today, and still prepare for the fact that the rest of the market will continue to improve. 

Because there is so much good wine available, consumers are confused.  They may know what they want—but they almost certainly don’t know how to find it in the ocean of choices in front of them. 

And to be fair, most wine consumers do not follow the world of wine closely.  Compared to their families, their jobs, and the food they are eating each night, wine is a less important part of their lives.  They don't pay attention to wine, and they don't remember what they might have been told.  On a list of the priorities in their life, wine usually doesn’t even appear. 

For producers, that ocean of top quality wine makes the competition even more difficult.  How can you stand out, when the rest of the world is competing against you?  How can you win customers, when the customers themselves are not paying close attention? 

In wine, the classical marketing concept of lifetime brand loyalty is almost non-existent.  Our customers choose a wide variety of wines, and revel in the array of choices.  This requires us to focus on every element of our business, and forces us to excel.  It is not enough to make better wine—we have to market it better, as well.  We have to deliver the whole package to a world of customers that is exploring the world of wine, and judging it, as never before.  And to be successful, we have to do it better than our competition.

© 2006 Paul Wagner, Napa CA,  All rights reserved.  Paul Wagner is an instructor at Napa Valley College and the MIB School in Trieste, Italy, and co-author of “Wine Marketing and Sales, Strategies for a Saturated Market,” published by the Wine Appreciation Guild.